December 4th & 5th 2010 - Rowsley (Peak Rail) and Bury, Baron Street Works

Saturday 4th December
Attendance: 4 (Two at Peak Rail, Two at Bury)

Chris & Rob arranged to travel to Peak Rail at Rowsley to pick up a class 14 exhaust stack and to remove some handbrake parts from D9500 for use in getting copies made to replace the missing items on D9531. Many thanks go D9500's new owner, Andrew Briddon, for allowing this to happen. We arrived at Rowsley to be greeted by a few feet of snow!

D9500 and Snow at Rowsley	Chris, D9500 and Snow at Rowsley

After getting overalls, boots and other layers of clothing on, we trudged our way in the snow to D9500, at the head of a siding, and made a start. Rob removed the split-pins from the hand brake link rod and then the pins; Chris removed the round end cap off the main brake shaft to reveal the square boss, which the claw lever is mounted on. Once done, the boss end was wire-brushed off and ample amounts of WD40 applied. Using a portable heat gun, the claw lever arm was heated up around the boss, hammer and small chisels were used to get in behind it and start to ease it off the boss. It moved a few mm at first, then with even tapping around it the arm soon came off. Hard bit over with, or so we thought!

We then looked at the handbrake arm, it was seized solid onto the shaft it should rotate on, the whole main brake shaft moving when we levered it up! This actually played to our advantage for removing the dog-bones, as the main shaft could be levered out of the way to make removal easier. Rob went into the bowels of D9500's B end to gain access to the dog-bones from the brake cylinders, knocked out the split pin and securing pin to the main brake shaft, Chris then levered on the seized handbrake arm to move the main brake shaft allowing Rob to easily remove the dog-bone from its home. Andrew Briddon now has this and is getting 2 copies made for D9531.

Rusted up dogbone pin on D9500	Heat being applied to removing the handbrake arm

We decided to have a cuppa and a rest as wallowing around in 3ft of snow wasn't much fun and the cold was starting to bite. After a brew and a warm, we returned to D9500 - next up, the seized handbrake arm. Ample amounts of WD40 and heat were applied then, using the chisel method again we started knocking it. It started to move, but progress was slow with more WD40 and heat required, striking with even blows each side with Rob sat underneath D9500 on the frozen ballast and Chris outside lying in a few feet of snow!

After an hour plus of treatment, the arm had reached around halfway. A change of tactics finally liberated it with Chris levering the arm and Rob striking from below, the main brake shaft eventually sprang back leaving the arm free to be removed. We tidied up and loaded everything into the car. The one remaining thing was to pick up the exhaust stack, which was located in a container further down the yard. With this found, we had a quick brew before setting off back down the A6 towards Bury.

Once the parts borrowed from D9500 have been copied, D9531's brake rigging can be completed and the rebuild nightmare put to bed. Again many thanks go to Andrew for allowing access and use of the bits off D9500 and for helping to get two dog-bone copies made. The handbrake arm and rod will now go to Les Tappenden's engineering works for copies to be made.

Meanwhile, at Bury on D9531, Alan Lee had been busy cutting and terminating the main power cables in D9531's control cubicle and tidying up a few other loose ends. Jason had been busy removing the window frames and re-checking fittings to make sure which frame went where.

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Sunday 5th December - Baron Street Works
Attendance: 5

Main aim for today was to refit the oil and fuel pipe flexible's that had been removed and sent away for replacement.

Jason started off by finding some suitable bolts, washers and nuts for the exhaust stack. Chris made up the fittings for the oil-priming pump, comprising straight nipples, an elbow and non-return valve. Adam and Chris then went into the Loco works, Adam refitted the two flexible's for the hydrostatic system, one was easy to do but the other required a water pipe moving out of the way to get the coupling started on the threads. Chris assisted with this then removed the square plate from on top of the oil pump to install the fittings he'd made earlier.

New connection arrangment to oil priming pump	New flexible oil pipes and connections

Jason also assisted Adam in fitting the flexible's and refitting the water pipe. Next on the list was the pipe from the sump to the swan neck pipe of the oil-priming pump. The new pipe required the new Ermeto olive compressing onto the fitting, this was done using a bench and vice and cone coupling. Once done the connection to the sump was started then an attempt was made to start the swan neck on the oil-priming pump, difficult isn't the word for it, several combinations were tried and some swearing followed!! In the end it was decided to remove the square 4 bolt mounting plate off the oil-priming pump, make a new gasket for it, then start this on the swan neck, bend into position and pull down on to the oil-priming pump using the 4 bolts. This was done and proved successful. All the couplings were then tightened up.

Chris was trying to start a new pipe on the oil filter housings of the paxman power unit, here again the newness of the pipe and coupling was problematic. For ease, one of the oil filter bowls was removed, but getting the angle right single-handed was proving difficult so, until help was available, Chris continued with fuel system pipes - the main one from the header tank has new Ermeto couplings and required the olives compressing on both ends, this was duly done on the bench then fitted.

The leak off pipes were next, one side only hand one to do and was a straight forward fitting at both ends, the other side has two leak offs (pump and injectors) some of the ends were Ermeto, requiring olives compressing, others were straight BSP fit. One of the fuel pump pipes had to be removed to gain access to the injector leak off couplings. Meanwhile, Adam and David had finished with the sump pipe and then fitted the new pipe between oil filters and priming pump, this was a bit longer than needed but with a bit of routing the pipe was connected at both ends. Jason had moved on and been busy sorting the small oil pipes that feed the pressure switches and oil pressure gauge in the cab. He found the original pipe, which needed some fettling and Alan had found the pipe that connects to pressure gauge in the cab, Jason worked out lengths and, bar one missing olive, finished the connections. An olive will be sourced to complete the oil pipe-work shortly.

New fuel pump leak off pipe	Exhaust stack in position

Alan Lee had been busy again in the cubicle sorting out various wires and also listing down any needs for outstanding items. With the main oil pipes now fitted, Adam refitted the main fuel pipe to the fuel pump and Chris set about refitting the oil filter, easier said than done, with limited access to get the two bolts started. The filter and bowl were removed from the housing to reduce the weight of the item, but getting both bolts started proved very tricky! Once done the filter was refitted. Adam, David and Jason, brought in the exhaust stack and mounted it in position, it could not be fitted properly as we did not have any suitable exhaust gasket material, and this is a job for next time. With the fuel system now complete, Chris opened the main valve and bleeds on the filter and fuel pumps, fuel was soon running freely out and everything was then nipped up.

With this we decided to call it a day, tools and equipment was tidied up and put away. A very successful weekend with more important steps forward made, especially considering the weather conditions on both days, working with cold steel in snow and -5 temperatures is no fun at times!